This invention relates generally to butchering, and more particularly to a machine for eviscerating poultry. Until fairly recently, poultry was eviscerated by hand. But growing labor costs, concerns over worker health, and the desire to minimize product contamination have by now made evisceration a job done primarily by machinery. The machines mimic what workers used to do: open the body of the bird at the vent without cutting the intestine (to avoid fecal contamination), then pull out the intestines, stomach and other internal organs through the opening. Certain organs--specifically, the heart, spleen, liver and gizzard--must remain associated with the carcass until it is inspected, because they may display signs of poor health, and because some may be included, with the neck, as giblets with the final product.
Every chicken produced in the U.S. is required to be visually inspected by a USDA inspector. At thirty-five birds or more per minute, the inspector's job is tedious and repetitious. Inspectors, like other workers, are subject to repetitive motion injuries, as they must manipulate the birds to get a good look at the interior of the body cavity and the organs. Inspection also is a limitation on line speed. It would therefore be beneficial to improve the way in which each bird is displayed to the inspector, and thus simplify his job by reducing or eliminating his need to handle the product.